When initially supplying electric power to electrical loads or when restoring electric power after an electrical outage, electric power is typically applied to all electrical loads at more or less the same time. For example, when restoring electric power to a building after electric power has been lost, all building equipment and utilities that use electric power typically come back online at the same time. Unfortunately, having everything come back online at the same time may result in power surges, the effect of which may be the blowing of power grids and/or fuses associated with the building power supply. There is therefore a need for a way to prevent electric power from being applied to all electrical loads at the same time in such situations.
Furthermore, while it may be possible to employ a central control system to apply electric power is sequential or nonsimultaneous fashion to a plurality of electrical loads at such times, using such a central control system to accomplish this is likely to be complicated and expensive.
Furthermore, such a central control system may be ineffective when there are a plurality of electrical loads on the same electric circuit. That is, whereas a central control system may be able to cause power to be applied in sequential fashion to each of a plurality of circuits, it is less likely to be able to cause power to be applied in sequential fashion to each of a plurality of electrical loads on any one electric circuit.
It is therefore desirable in such situations that there be a way to apply power in sequential fashion to each of a plurality of electrical loads, and to even apply power in sequential fashion to each of a plurality of electrical loads whether those electrical loads are on the same or different circuits. It is therefore also desirable in such situations that there be a way to apply power in sequential fashion to each of such a plurality of electrical loads so that electric power is applied to each electrical load at a unique time without the need to rely on a central control system.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.